Tropical trees are dying at faster rates than ever before. While deforestation continues to be a major issue, even untouched forests are seeing increased rates of tree death. 



Scientists have long pointed to drought, extreme heat, and wildfires as key contributing factors to tropical tree mortality. But now, they are highlighting another powerful and often-overlooked force: thunderstorms.



Unlike the more familiar hurricanes and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/are-bomb-cyclones-increasing-due-to-climate-change/">cyclones</a>, these storms are short but intense. Their high winds and lightning can be devastating to trees.



According to a recent study from researchers at the <a href="https://www.caryinstitute.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies</a>, these storms are becoming more frequent due to climate change - and they’re causing serious harm to tropical forests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-climate-cost-of-tropical-tree-death">The climate cost of tropical tree death</h2>



“<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tropical-forests-are-struggling-to-keep-pace-with-climate-change/">Tropical forests</a> have massive effects on global climate. They're like the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-amazon-rainforest-and-the-looming-threat-of-drought/">lungs of the Earth</a>, and we're seeing trees in them dying at higher rates than in the past, and the composition of forests is changing, too,” said Evan Gora, a forest ecologist at&nbsp;Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. 



“That could be really problematic for the future of not just tropical forests, but for the planet.”



While storms might seem like fleeting events, their impact on tropical forests can be lasting. These powerful bursts of wind and lightning can injure or topple even the largest trees, disrupting forest structure and biodiversity in seconds.



“Being in the forest during a tropical storm is unforgettable,” said study co-author Vanessa Rubio. “As the storm quickly builds, the sky darkens, humidity changes drastically, and strong winds shake the trees. 



"Then, thunder and lightning come. Leaves and branches fall to the ground, rain pours down, and your instinct is to get back to the field station as quickly as possible.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-silent-driver-of-tree-death">A silent driver of tree death</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/thunderstorms-are-becoming-more-intense-due-to-climate-change/">Thunderstorms</a> haven’t been given the same attention as other climate-related threats. But that’s starting to change. The team re-examined data from earlier studies on tropical tree death and forest carbon levels. They found that storms are just as significant - if not more so - than <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-drought-crisis-un-warns-of-unprecedented-emergency/">drought</a> or heat.



“We were surprised to find that storms may be the largest single factor causing tree death in these forests, and they’re largely overlooked by research into carbon storage in the tropics,” said Gora. 



“Our estimates suggest that storms are responsible for 30 to 60% of tree mortality in the past, and that number must be increasing as storm activity increases by 5 to 25% each decade.”



When the researchers added storms to the largest plot-based study on tropical forest carbon, the picture changed dramatically. The previous data showed a sharp drop in carbon when temperatures rose above a certain point. But adding storms made that link disappear.



“But when you add storms, that relationship goes away,” Gora said. “It basically shows that you have to include storms, or you might not get the answers right.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-double-trouble-for-tropical-trees">Double trouble for tropical trees</h2>



The team found that storms and drought often hit the same forests. The southern <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tree-rings-show-amazon-rainfall-is-getting-more-extreme/">Amazon</a>, for instance, experiences both frequent storms and severe water stress. These combined threats are reshaping the region’s ecology.



“During my studies on threats to tropical forests, my professors, our textbooks, and even overall climate policy never mentioned small, convective storms as a potential source of forest mortality,” said study co-author Ian McGregor.



“I don't remember seeing them in global climate models used to inform climate policy. Given our findings, however, it's clear we need a more thorough understanding of these storms to have more accurate climate models, and thus more effective policy,” he added.



So why have storms flown under the radar until now? Part of the reason is that heat and drought are easier to measure. Tools like weather stations and long-term satellite tracking make it simpler to monitor those threats. 



But storms are different. They strike quickly and cause scattered damage. Satellites often miss the evidence of tropical tree deaths, and it’s nearly impossible for researchers to check vast forests manually after every storm.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracking-trees-from-sky-to-soil">Tracking trees from sky to soil</h2>



To address these challenges, the team launched the Gigante project, co-led by the University of Birmingham. It uses a combination of lightning-tracking systems, drones, and field experts to monitor large areas of tropical forest. 



This enables scientists to pinpoint the location and extent of tree death, when the damage occurs, and which species are most at risk.



“If we make decisions about which species to plant or conserve based on an incorrect understanding of what's actually killing these trees and which species are most vulnerable, those forests won’t reach their full potential,” said Gora. 



Mature trees are especially vulnerable to storm damage. Without clearer insight, we might not realize our reforestation choices were flawed until decades later.



“However, if we can build a more holistic picture of what’s driving forest change, we can be a lot more confident in guiding forest management practices for long-term sustainability," noted Gora.



Understanding why tropical trees are dying isn’t just a scientific concern - it’s a climate priority with global consequences.



The study is to be <a href="https://www.caryinstitute.org/news-insights/press-release/thunderstorms-are-major-driver-tree-death-tropical-forests">published</a> in a perspective article in the journal Ecology Letters.



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Tropical tree deaths are increasing, even in untouched forests

Tropical trees are dying at faster rates than ever before. While deforestation continues to be a major issue, even untouched forests are seeing increased rates of tree death. Scientists have long pointed to drought, extreme heat, and wildfires as key contributing factors to tropical tree mortality. But now, they are highlighting another powerful and often-overlooked force: thunderstorms. Unlike the more familiar hurricanes and cyclones, these storms are short but intense. Their high winds and lightning can be devastating to trees. According to a recent study from researchers...

The ongoing decline of more than 300 species of animals is having significant environmental impacts and posing a food security threat for millions of people in Asia, Africa and South America, according to the first global assessment of the hunting and trapping of terrestrial mammals.

Species of large wild ungulates, primates and bats are threatened primarily by unregulated or illegal bushmeat hunting, according to data collected by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a nongovernmental organization.

Researchers concluded that only bold changes and political will can diminish the possibility of humans consuming many of the world's wild mammals to the point of extinction.

An international team led by William Ripple, distinguished professor of ecology at Oregon State University, analyzed data on the IUCN Red List to reach their findings, which were published today in Royal Society Open Science, a professional journal.

The animals at risk range from large (grey ox, Bactrian camels, bearded and warty pigs) to small (golden-capped fruit bat, black-bearded flying fox and Bulmer's fruit bat). Hunting endangers more primate species - 126, including the lowland gorilla, chimpanzee, bonobo and many species of lemurs and monkeys - than any other group.

Populations of other species are declining and similarly threatened. Javan and black rhinoceroses, tapirs, deer, tree kangaroos, armadillos, pangolins, rodents and large carnivores are all hunted or trapped for meat, medicine, body parts, trophies or live pets.

Scientists reviewed IUCN data on 1,169 of the world's terrestrial mammals that are listed as threatened with extinction. These animals represent 26 percent of all mammals for which data exist to determine whether or not they are endangered.

Forests, grasslands and deserts in the developing world are now lacking many species of wild animals and becoming "empty landscapes," the authors wrote in their study.

The researchers suggested five broad steps for effectively addressing the threat:
<ul>
 	<li>Laws could be changed to increase penalties for poaching and illegal trafficking and to expand protected habitats for endangered mammals.</li>
 	<li>Property rights could be provided to communities that benefit from the presence of wildlife.</li>
 	<li>Food alternatives can help shift consumption to more sustainable species, especially protein-rich plant foods.</li>
 	<li>Education could help consumers in all countries understand the threats to mammals that are hunted or trapped.</li>
 	<li>Assistance in family planning could help relieve pressure on wildlife in regions where women want to delay or avoid pregnancy.</li>
</ul>
The researchers suggest that, to curb this overhunting crisis, more logistical and financial support will be needed from the richer, developed countries.

"Our analysis is conservative," said Ripple. "These 301 species are the worst cases of declining mammal populations for which hunting and trapping are clearly identified as a major threat. If data for a species were missing or inconclusive, we didn't include it.

"Our goal is to raise awareness of this global crisis. Many of these animals are at the brink of extinction. The illegal smuggling in wildlife and wildlife products is run by dangerous international networks and ranks among trafficking in arms, human beings and drugs in terms of profits."

People across much of the globe depend on wild meat for part of their diets, the researchers noted. For example, they wrote, "an estimated 89,000 metric tons of meat with a market value of about $200 million are harvested annually in the Brazilian Amazon, and exploitation rates in the Congo basin are estimated to be five times higher...." Loss of these mammals could affect the livelihoods of millions of people, the researchers said.

Overhunting of mammals is concentrated, they added, in countries with poorer populations. As hunters find it harder to feed their families, it is likely they will switch to less preferred species, migrate, or suffer from malnutrition and disease.

Not all wild meat is consumed for subsistence, the researchers noted. Much of it is sold in markets and as delicacies in urban restaurants. In 2010, another team of scientists found that about five tons of bushmeat are smuggled weekly in tourist luggage through the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

Large carnivores and herbivores (bigger than 10 kilograms or 22 pounds) comprise a small percentage of all mammals listed but tend to be impacted more severely by overhunting, the researchers reported. By dispersing seeds and controlling smaller animals such as rodents, large animals have significant impacts on the environment.

The loss of large mammals could lead to long-lasting ecological changes, including overpopulation of prey, higher disease risks and the loss of benefits for humans, the researchers said. The scientists found that 57 species of even-toed ungulates (such as hippopotamus, wild yak, camel, marsh deer) larger than 10 kilograms are threatened by hunting.

Smaller mammals play crucial roles in dispersing seeds, pollinating plants and controlling insects. The largest group of mammals under 1 kilogram (about 2 pounds) threatened by hunting is comprised of 27 species of bats.

Ripple has led international collaborations to analyze the status and ecological effects of large animals. Co-authors on this project include researchers at Oregon State University, Stanford University, the University of California Santa Barbara and universities in Gabon, the U.K., Sweden, South Africa, Brazil and Australia.
<div></div>
<div>--</div>
<div></div>
<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.oregonstate.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oregon State University</a></div>

Bushmeat hunting poses a food security threat around the world

The ongoing decline of more than 300 species of animals...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">
A resilient dietary strategy balancing reliable wetland plants and "riskier" seasonal grasses may have driven adoption of the sedentary lifestyle which later became typical of Neolithic humans, according to a study published October 19, 2016 by Monica Ramsey.
Neolithization - the development of human adaptations, such as a sedentary lifestyle, which later characterized Neolithic life - was previously thought to have been facilitated by a dietary shift to cereals and grains around 23,000 years ago, beginning the long and supposedly linear transition to agriculture. In the present study, Ramsey and colleagues challenge conventional thinking about Neolithization pathways by analyzing minute fossilized plant particles known as phytoliths in 31 samples from the c.19,000-year-old pre-Neolithic site of Kharaneh IV in the Azraq Basin, Jordan, to identify the plants used by inhabitants at the time.
The researchers found predominant evidence of wetland plant use, notably reeds and sedges, considered to be "low-risk" dietary resource due to their reliable year-round availability. Some evidence of steppe/parkland grasses and wild cereal use, "higher-risk" seasonal resources, was also found. The authors posit that the inhabitants of this region adopted a diet which supplemented reliable wetland plant staples with riskier grasses and wild cereals when available, forming a resilient plant-use strategy that may have enabled inhabitants to settle in one area for longer than previously possible.
While further analysis of samples is required, the authors suggest that this pre-Neolithic strategy of combining risky and reliable plant resources may have facilitated a sedentary lifestyle and so driven Neolithization via an unexpected pathway.
"At Kharaneh IV, our microbotanical evidence suggests that increasingly settled occupation - a key component of later 'Neolithic' lifestyles - was not the result of wild grass and cereal use," says Ramsey. "Instead, some 20,000 years ago, hunter-gatherer's at this site were 'hedging their bets' on the year-round larder of the wetland.”
Credit: Monica Ramsey Monica Ramsey from the University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues. 
<a href="http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0164081">Read the full paper </a>

</div>
&nbsp;

</div>
<div></div>

New research links diet to Neolithization

A resilient dietary strategy balancing reliable wetland plants and "riskier"...

Tropical Depression Sarika made landfall early on Oct. 19 when NASA-NOAA's  satellite passed overhead.
Sarika's maximum sustained winds were near 34.5 mph (30 knots /55.5 kph). It was moving to the north-northwest at 8 mph (7 knots/13 kph). At that time, the center of the depression was about 130 nautical miles east-northeast of Hanoi, Vietnam.
Sarika is expected to dissipate over land, however, there is a slight chance its remnants may reemerge over the Gulf of Tonkin.
Credits: <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/">NOAA</a>/<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a>

NASA catches Tropical Depression Sarika in the act

Tropical Depression Sarika made landfall early on Oct. 19 when...

Two new papers from The Condor: Ornithological Applications demonstrate the complex challenges involved in balancing the management of fire-prone landscapes with the needs of wildlife in the American West.

Salvage logging after a wildfire can provide economic benefits for local communities that depend on the timber industry, but what about birds that rely on recently burned habitat for foraging and nesting? Quresh Latif and Victoria Saab of the U.S. Forest Service and their colleagues assessed how well mathematical models predicting species distributions and guiding management decisions transfer from one location to another. Surveying for Black-backed and Lewis's woodpecker nests in three locations in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho that had burned within the last five years, they used the data they collected to develop habitat suitability models and then tested model performance at alternate locations. While models that included habitat data collected in the field did better than models that relied only on remote sensing, the models' overall transferability was limited.

"Broadly applicable predictive models will require integration of field data from multiple wildfire locations," says Saab. "We hope that managers will apply the habitat suitability models for post-fire forest management planning and decisions in close proximity locations to where the model was developed."

In California, land managers face a different challenge--how to restore forests overloaded with fuels after decades of fire suppression without causing further harm to the region's declining Spotted Owl populations. Douglas Tempel and Zachariah Peery of the University of Wisconsin, Rocky Gutiérrez of the University of Minnesota, and their colleagues wanted to know what factors were correlated with changes in occupancy of Spotted Owls throughout the Sierra Nevada ecosystem. Their models show that owls are declining throughout Sierra Nevada except in two national parks protected from typical forest management. Occupancy rates are best explained by the amount of medium and high canopy cover forests within an owl territory. Based on this finding and others, they suggest that judicious use of forest fuels treatments that reduce canopy cover could be used in some areas without driving the owls away.

"We're not suggesting that they do this within the core parts of the territory that the owls use for nesting and roosting," says Gutiérrez. But in the long term, returning the region to a more natural fire regime might actually benefit the owls by reducing the likelihood of intense, large-scale fires that can damage the old-growth habitat on which Spotted Owls rely.

"We were unable to distinguish stands characterized by medium and large trees," adds Peery. "As a result, a key uncertainty involves the extent to which changes in the prevalence of large trees in territories impacts Spotted Owl occupancy and demographics, an issue that requires additional study."

In both California and the Northwest, meeting the short-term habitat needs of birds while promoting the long-term health of forests and local communities is a delicate balancing act. However, the dedicated scientists and land managers behind these two studies suggest that if habitat and population data is carefully applied when creating management plans, it may be an achievable goal.
<div>--</div>
<div></div>
<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.aoucospubs.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Central Ornithological publication Office</a></div>

Saving birds in areas prone to wildfires

Two new papers from The Condor: Ornithological Applications demonstrate the...

According to new research from Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (<a href="https://ncar.ucar.edu/">NCAR</a>)  the "flash drought" that unexpectedly gripped the U.S. Southern Rockies and Midwest in the summer of 2012 could have been predicted months in advance using soil moisture and snowpack data.
The drought resulted in $30 billion of economic losses.
Researchers found that observations of snowmelt and soil moisture could have forecast the drought up to four months in advance.
"Advance knowledge of a drought even a month or two ahead of time can greatly minimize the effects on society," said Anjuli Bamzai, program director in NSF's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences. "This study highlights the role of snowpack and soil moisture conditions in predicting the sudden onset of drought."
Seasonal drought forecasts issued in May 2012 for the upcoming summer did not foresee a drought forming in the country's midsection. But by the end of August, a drought that started in the Southern Rockies had spread across the Midwest, parching Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri.
"The 2012 drought over the Midwest was one of the most severe and extensive U.S. droughts since the 1930s Dust Bowl, but it was also extremely challenging to predict," said Debasish PaiMazumder, lead author of the study. "This study demonstrated the potential to improve seasonal drought outlooks in the future, giving farmers, water planners, and others more time to prepare."
Flash droughts -- which form and intensify rapidly -- can catch forecasters off-guard because they are not preceded by any large-scale climate patterns that could act as warning signals.
One contributor to the recent California drought was a persistent high-pressure system parked off the west coast that deflected storms away from the state. Because forecasters could identify the high-pressure system, they could also accurately predict fewer storms and a worsening of the drought.
Previous research showed that looking at soil moisture alone could improve the lead time for drought predictions by one to two months. 
While observations of snowpack and soil moisture could have helped forecast the 2012 drought, the method does not replace other drought prediction measures.
Source: <a href="https://www.nsf.gov">NSF</a>

New research can help predict flash droughts

According to new research from Scientists at the National Center...

Below sea level

A new study using NASA satellite data finds that tide gauges -- the longest and highest-quality records of historical ocean water levels -- may have underestimated the amount of global average sea level rise that occurred during the 20th century.

A research team led by Philip Thompson, associate director of the University of Hawaii Sea Level Center in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, Manoa, evaluated how various processes that cause sea level to change differently in different places may have affected past measurements. The team also included scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia.

“It’s not that there’s something wrong with the instruments or the data,” said Thompson, “but for a variety of reasons, sea level does not change at the same pace everywhere at the same time. As it turns out, our best historical sea level records tend to be located where 20th century sea level rise was most likely less than the true global average.”

One of the key processes the researchers looked at is the effect of “ice melt fingerprints,” which are global patterns of sea level change caused by deviations in Earth’s rotation and local gravity that occur when a large ice mass melts. To determine the unique melt fingerprint for glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets, the team used data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites on Earth’s changing gravitational field, and a novel modeling tool (developed by study co-author Surendra Adhikari and the JPL team) that simulates how ocean mass is redistributed due to ice melting.

One of the most fascinating and counter-intuitive features of these fingerprints is that sea level drops in the vicinity of a melting glacier, instead of rising as might be expected. The loss of ice mass reduces the glacier’s gravitational influence, causing nearby ocean water to migrate away. But far from the glacier, the water it has added to the ocean causes sea level to rise at a much greater rate.

During the 20th century, the dominant locations of global ice melt were in the Northern Hemisphere. The results of this study showed that many of the highest-quality historical water level records are taken from places where the melt fingerprints of Northern Hemisphere sources result in reduced local sea level change compared to the global average. Furthermore, the scientists found that factors capable of enhancing sea level rise at these locations, such as wind or Southern Hemisphere melt, were not likely to have counteracted the impact of fingerprints from Northern Hemisphere ice melt.

The study concludes it is highly unlikely that global average sea level rose less than 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) during the 20th century. The most likely amount was closer to 6.7 inches (17 centimeters).

“This is really important, because it provides answers to the question about how melt fingerprints and the influence of wind on ocean circulation affect our ability to estimate past sea level rise,” said Thompson. “These results suggest that our longest records are most likely to underestimate past global mean change and allow us to establish the minimum amount of global sea level rise that could have occurred during the last century.”

Results are published in Geophysical Research Letters.

---
Source: <a href="http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov">GRACE</a>, <a href="https://sealevel.nasa.gov/">NASA</a>

Sea level rise in the 20th century has been greatly underestimated

A new study using NASA satellite data finds that tide...

Plants cannot move to find new places to live in, but they can actively direct their seeds to new suitable places for plant development. This 'directed dispersal' had previously been shown only for plants with seeds that are transported by animals. Researchers have now shown that plants can also actively send their seeds towards suitable sites by way of wind or water. The results from the study, led by Utrecht University biologist Merel Soons, is published Early Online in Functional Ecology on 14 October.

Plants growing under permanently flooded, wet conditions produce large seeds that sink immediately in water. These seeds are transported at the bottom of the pond, stream, or ditch by water flows that take them only to other inundated, wet sites. In contrast, plants growing at the waterline produce seeds that float for extensive periods of time until they are eventually washed ashore in the waterline. In these ways, plants growing in the reach of water use the transportation capacity of water in very different ways to direct the dispersal of their seeds towards suitable sites. Plants growing on the uplands have seeds that are best dispersed by wind, facilitating their transportation across wet areas to reach other dry sites.

[caption id="attachment_89756" align="alignleft" width="150"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-89756" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/cff2.earth-com-temp.comuploads20161018101014media.eurekalert.orgmultimedia_prodpubweb124917_web-58f00ec8921bb56f3d14816461a05eec02fbff11-9445d66de7164f46173951d6f7f610eb29ffaab0-150x150.jpg" alt="Plant seed dispersal" width="150" height="150" /> Plant seed dispersal[/caption]

Really Quite Smart

Whereas directed dispersal has been known for animal-dispersed plant species, most plant species are not dispersed by animals but by water or wind. "I wondered: wouldn't it be highly efficient for these species as well, if their seeds were dispersed predominantly towards suitable sites?" says Merel Soons, lead author of the publication. Together with her research team, she studied a range of wetland plant species growing in the water, on shorelines, and on the permanently dry, upland part. "We were excited to discover that these plants can direct their own seeds via wind or water," says Soons. "It appears that plants are really quite 'smart'."

Animal-dispersed Seeds

Previous studies of animal-dispersed plant species showed that this mode of transportation may be very efficient for plants. Animals may purposely or accidentally pick up seeds and deposit them at another site when they are moving. For example, in earlier studies Soons and colleagues quantified how seeds of wetland plants are ingested by ducks in one pond and excreted after a couple of hours in the next pond visited by the bird on its nocturnal foraging trip. In this way, seeds are transported between wetlands and to new sites that are suitable for the plant species to grow in.
<div></div>
<div>--</div>
<div></div>
<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.uu.nl/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Utrecht University</a></div>

Plants decide where to spread their seeds

Plants cannot move to find new places to live in,...

The U.S. Air Force is spending nearly $1 billion to build a radar installation that will help keep astronauts and satellites safe by tracking pieces of space junk as small as a baseball. That is, if global warming doesn't get in the way.
The Space Fence is being constructed on a tiny atoll in the Marshall Islands that scientists say could be regularly swamped by rising sea levels within a couple of decades as a result of climate change. The salt water could play havoc with the equipment, the scientists say.
And The Associated Press found that neither the military nor its contractor, Lockheed Martin, gave serious consideration to that threat when designing the installaclimation and choosing a site, despite warnings from the island nation's environmental agency.
The future "does not look good for a lot of these islands," said Curt Storlazzi, an oceanographer with the U.S. Geological Survey who is leading a study at Kwajalein Atoll, where the Space Fence complex is being built.
Dana Whalley, a civilian who is managing the Space Fence program, said that the radar installation has a projected lifespan of 25 years and that he doesn't expect sea levels to rise enough over that period to cause a problem. But if necessary, he said, the base could take steps to improve its seawalls.
Still, because of budget pressures, military equipment is often used well beyond its projected lifespan. In fact, a key part of the radar tracking system that the Space Fence replaces was built during the dawn of the space age and was badly outdated by the time it was shut down 50 years later in 2013.
Midway between Hawaii and Australia, the Marshall Islands are specks of land that typically poke just a few feet above the Pacific Ocean, making them some of the world's most vulnerable places to rising seas.
The U.S. military has a longstanding connection to the islands. Bikini Atoll was used as a nuclear test site after World War II. Kwajalein Atoll, a battle site during the war, is now an Army base, a ballistic missile test site and an important part of the military's space surveillance network.
The growing problem of space debris was highlighted in 2009, when an old Russian satellite smashed into a commercial U.S. satellite, creating hundreds of pieces of orbiting junk. The 2013 movie "Gravity" dramatized the threat to astronauts, who need to be safe from debris whether they're traveling on the International Space Station or in a rocket.
Lockheed Martin won the $915 million Space Fence contract in 2014 and broke ground last year. When the radar system becomes operational in late 2018, it should increase the number of objects that can be tracked tenfold to about 200,000 and provide more precise information on their orbits.
The Space Fence installation will include digital transmitters and receivers as well as power and cooling facilities. About 15 people will operate and maintain it around the clock.
The military chose the Marshall Islands because the Space Fence works best near the equator. But it means the installation is being built just 10 feet (3 meters) above sea level, or the height of a basketball hoop.
Storlazzi said his study explored the point at which storms will cause the sea to wash clear across an island, completely submerging it, at least once a year. He said that's when an island will no longer be able to sustain most plant or animal life.
He examined one island within Kwajalein Atoll and found that it will probably reach its tipping point within a few decades. He said the island on which the Space Fence is being built faces a similar threat.
The flooding there will probably damage power cables, sewer lines and other electronics and hardware, he said. The seawater will erode land, he said, and eat away at everything from concrete to cars.
"When you get to the point where water is going over the top of the island annually, it will affect a lot of daily life, whether it's related to the Space Fence or other operations, like moving food around," he said.
The study, funded primarily by the Defense Department, has not yet been peer-reviewed or published. But it paints a much more dire future for the atoll than earlier studies.
"We are talking the next couple of decades, not centuries, as previously thought," Storlazzi said.
He said his team studied the underwater contours of the islands and showed how coral reefs will become less effective as breakwaters when sea levels rise.
The Marshall Islands base is among dozens of U.S. military sites threatened by climate change. A July report by the Union of Concerned Scientists analyzed 18 military installations along the U.S. East and Gulf coasts. It found that with just a moderate rise in sea levels, 16 could flood 100 times a year by 2050.
Last October, strong winds and waves battered Kwajalein Atoll. Ferries were canceled and a dock was damaged, forcing the base to take the unprecedented step of hosting 845 Marshallese day workers overnight.
Whalley said the military investigated threats, including ocean flooding, in an environmental assessment of the site before beginning construction. "The over-wash threat, if you will, is built into the government requirements of the site," he said.
Yet that 2014 assessment, which runs over 100 pages and addresses everything from sea turtles to the island's archaeological history, makes no mention of climate change, noting only that the Space Fence would be able to withstand a small earthquake-generated tsunami.
A single line reads: "Based on historical data, there are no anticipated issues with ocean tide and/or wave flooding."
Lockheed Martin did not investigate the issue either. Bruce Schafhauser, Lockheed's program director for the Space Fence, said the Air Force asked it to design the system to withstand earthquakes but not rising seas.
"We don't have any insight into that," Schafhauser said. "It has not been something that has been required from the Air Force."
Schafhauser said the responsibility for finding a suitable location for the installation fell to the military.
The Marshall Islands Environmental Protection Authority wrote a response to the environmental assessment, describing the U.S. military's overall treatment of the climate change threat to Kwajalein as "wholly inadequate." It questioned whether the military was overstating the atoll's elevation and criticized its reliance on historical data when the problem is rising seas, a more recent phenomenon.
The military responded in its final report: "Detailed study of sea-level rise risks are beyond the scope of this document."
Since then, leaders from the Marshall Islands say they have been working with the U.S. to improve environmental standards and ensure climate effects are seriously addressed in future military projects.
Whalley said he plans to find out more about the USGS research at Kwajalein.
"It's the first I've heard about the study," he said. "When they give you a billion dollars, you tend to focus on getting the radar built."
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US Air Force ignored climate change warnings at Space Fence radar site

The U.S. Air Force is spending nearly $1 billion to...

Paleontologists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the National Park Service found the first dinosaur bones in Denali National Park during an expedition in July. They also discovered several new dinosaur trackways, which are fossilized impressions left by ancient animals walking through mud that eventually became rock.

Pat Druckenmiller, curator of Earth sciences at the University of Alaska Museum of the North, is leading a collaborative project with Denali National Park over the next several years to explore additional areas and make new discoveries.

"This marks the beginning of a multi-year project to locate, document and study dinosaur fossils in Denali National Park," Druckenmiller said. "This is a world-class site for tracks of dinosaurs and other animals that lived in Alaska during the Cretaceous Period. Now that we have found bones, we have another way to understand the dinosaurs that lived here 70 million years ago."

The research team found four different fragments, including one ossified tendon. The largest is a few inches long. They are clearly parts of bigger bones from a large animal. This rules out other animals with a backbone known from this geological period, including mammals, birds and even flying reptiles. Because they are parts of much bigger bones, Druckenmiller expects more complete remains may be found in the park.

"Finding these bones opens a new chapter in the story of Denali dinosaurs," he said. "That story is still being written as we find new sites, new kinds of dinosaurs and evidence of their behavior."

Before 2005, there was no known dinosaur record in Denali. That year, UAF students discovered the first track in the Cantwell Formation near Igloo Creek. Since then paleontologists have catalogued thousands of tracks. Still, this is the first time scientists have found identifiable bones left by animals that populated the area during the Late Cretaceous Period.

Park geologist Denny Capps said Denali National Park was created to protect the present intact ecosystem 99 years ago.

"We now know that it protects an ancient ecosystem, as well," Capps said. "Visitors could discover a fresh bear track next to a 70-million-year-old dinosaur track or potentially even a bone. Thankfully, these resources are protected within the Denali wilderness for all to enjoy."

Heather MacFarlane, a UA Museum of the North research assistant, discovered the first bone. She and other researchers recognized the fragments as bones rather than sedimentary material based on the surface and internal structure. These fossils closely resemble other plant-eating dinosaur bones found in Alaska.

Paleontologist Cassi Knight, physical science technician for Denali National Park, was with MacFarlane when the discovery was made.

"It is significant because it answers a question that has been standing for the past 11 years; 'Are there dinosaur bones preserved in the Cantwell Formation?'" Knight said. "We have a great record of dinosaurs inhabiting this area, and now we finally know that their bones are preserved, too."

Gregory Erickson, a Florida State University researcher who specializes in the use of bone and tooth histology to interpret the paleobiology of dinosaurs, was also part of the discovery team. He is preparing thin sections of some of the fossils. Scientists can examine these delicate slices under high-powered microscopes to determine the type of animal that left the bones behind. Annual growth lines and other patterns can also reveal the animal's age.

Based on the shape and structure of the fossilized tendon discovered by the team, Erickson and Druckenmiller determined that it is from a large ornithopod dinosaur, probably a hadrosaur. These duck-billed, herbivorous dinosaurs were probably the most abundant large animals in Alaska. They were also the primary track-makers in the park during this time period.

Another larger fragment is composed of spongy bone originating from the end of a large animal's limb. This microstructure shows the bone didn't come from a crocodile or other slow-growing, cold-blooded animal. It is clearly from a medium-sized to large dinosaur, they said.

Druckenmiller and Erickson previously published documentation suggesting that during this time period, a distinct, polar fauna existed in what is now Alaska. Then, a polar forest covered the Arctic because the climate was much warmer. The dinosaurs had to contend with months of winter darkness and cooler temperatures than environments typically associated with dinosaurs.
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<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.uaf.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Alaska Fairbanks</a></div>

First evidence that dinosaurs lived in Denali National Park

Paleontologists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the National...

The oceans hold a vast reservoir -- 700 billion tons -- of carbon, dissolved in seawater as organic matter, often surviving for thousands of years after being produced by ocean life. Yet, little is known about how it is produced, or how it's being impacted by the many changes happening in the ocean.

Think of dissolved organic carbon, or DOC, in the ocean as tree leaves and other dead organic matter falling to the forest ground--a portion of this natural carbon sustains life while the remainder remains hidden in the soils, being sequestered for many years. As is true in the forests, this vital, residual carbon reservoir is necessary to sustain life in the ocean, and to sequester vast amounts of carbon in its great depths.

To better understand this important pool of ocean carbon, researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science used data collected over the past 15 years on several international scientific cruises to map the distribution of this material in the Atlantic Ocean. From the analysis, they found that this major basin contributes one third of the global ocean net production of dissolved organic carbon.

[caption id="attachment_89888" align="alignleft" width="150"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-89888" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/cff2.earth-com-temp.comuploads20161018150937media.eurekalert.orgmultimedia_prodpubweb125059_web-de7999c30fafa3cbc0c860ce838bd14b6a8bfad3-0c75ec12af3f4bd84024ee2b49e2611b5579d155-150x150.jpg" alt="Ocean carbon concentrations" width="150" height="150" /> Ocean carbon concentrations[/caption]

"Carbon is involved in all aspects of our life," said Dennis Hansell, UM Rosenstiel School professor of ocean sciences and coauthor of the study. "We need to understand the carbon cycle on Earth especially as we add more from the burning of fossil fuels."

Dissolved organic carbon is the primary food source at the base of the marine food chain. It is produced by phytoplankton during photosynthesis, and it is mostly consumed by microbial life. The remainder that is not consumed by microbes accumulates in the ocean.

The researchers discovered that the production of dissolved organic carbon at the ocean's surface could be accurately predicted by measuring the amount of nutrients arriving into the euphotic, or sunlit, zone. The nutrients arrive there mostly by winter mixing and upwelling, and in turn support the growth of ocean plant life. From the arrival of nutrients to the surface ocean, they estimated the resulting plant growth and the production of residue, the DOC, from that growth. From those estimates, they built a map of DOC at the surface of the entire Atlantic Ocean.

"In our work, we found that the production of dissolved organic carbon depends on the quantity of nutrients that reach the euphotic zone from deeper layers," said Cristina Romera-Castillo, a former postdoctoral researcher at the UM Rosenstiel School and lead author of the study. "In future scenarios, how climate change will affect the nutrient arrival to the surface ocean will determine the inventory of dissolved organic carbon in the ocean."

This inventory in turn affects the cycling of carbon on Earth, which has important roles in climate.

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Credit: <a href="http://www.rsmas.miami.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UM Rosenstiel School</a>

Ocean life produces an enormous carbon reservoir

The oceans hold a vast reservoir -- 700 billion tons...

Tropical Fish

Two cold spells, two years apart, in two subtropical regions, have given scientists clues about what happens when an extreme climate event strikes.

By tracking conditions before, during and after a 2008 cold spell in China and a 2010 cold spell in Florida, researchers found severe effects on plants and animals, but not all these effects were equal.

Tropical species suffered more than their temperate counterparts, which were able to resist and recover from the record low temperatures.

Complex Consequences

"Long-term ecological studies like these give us opportunities to understand the complex consequences of unanticipated events such as extreme cold snaps," said ecologist Evelyn Gaiser of Florida International University and principal investigator of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. "This short but extreme cold event mimicked the effects of a strong tropical storm or hurricane. The short-term consequences were different, but the long-term conclusions were similar."

In South Florida, tropical fish, mangroves, and American crocodile populations declined, while populations of their temperate counterparts remained unchanged or increased following the 2010 cold spell.

In China, the population of tropical butterflies in the Nanling National Nature Preserve dropped by 80 percent following the cold spell, allowing temperate butterflies to dominate the area for two years.

These findings have been shared in a new, special issue of the journal Ecosphere, published by the Ecological Society of America.

"More frequent extreme weather is likely with climate change," said David Garrison, program director in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences. "These studies show that these extremes may be cold anomalies as well as warm ones."

Effects on species

Along with disrupting biodiversity, the 2010 cold spell affected Florida's fisheries.

Economically lucrative bonefish, snook and goliath grouper fisheries experienced mass mortalities, while others, including red drum and gray snapper, were not affected.

Some saw population increases after the cold spell passed, including redfish.

Non-native species proved to be less resistant to the cold spells than native species. Non-native bee populations in South Florida took nearly four years to recover, and some non-native fish have shown no meaningful population recovery to date.

The researchers stress the importance of using long-term data to understand how these species in the subtropics will react to and recover from extreme climate events and to predict what the future will look like for them.

Not all populations resist and recover equally, scientists say, and conservation plans that incorporate strategies for extreme climate events could help those that are most vulnerable.

Source:<a href="https://www.nsf.gov/"> NSF</a>

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Cold spells strike danger for subtropical species

Two cold spells, two years apart, in two subtropical regions,...

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Tropical Storm Nicole was becoming extra-tropical yesterday when the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite passed over it from space. By Oct. 18, Nicole was a post-tropical storm and the National Hurricane Center, or NHC issued their final advisory on the system.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided an image of the storm. This showed that Nicole had become elongated from southwest to northeast and appeared more oval-shaped with the strongest thunderstorms east of the center.
Nicole is finally losing its tropical cyclone characteristics as it merges with a frontal system over the North Atlantic Ocean's chilly waters. Becoming extra-tropical means the storm moves closer to the north or south pole and out of the tropics and its primary energy source changes from the release of latent heat of condensation to baroclinic (the temperature contrast between warm and cold air masses) processes.
At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC) on Oct. 18, the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Nicole was located near 47.1 degrees north latitude and 39.5 degrees west longitude, about 640 miles (1,030 km) east of Cape Race, Newfoundland, Canada. The post-tropical cyclone is moving toward the north-northeast near 31 mph (50 kph), and this motion is expected to continue through Wednesday night. Maximum sustained winds are near 65 mph (100 kph) with higher gusts.
The post-tropical cyclone is expected to complete extratropical transition during the day on Oct. 18 and continue as a vigorous extratropical storm through Wednesday night, Oct. 19 or Thursday, Oct. 20 before it is absorbed by another extratropical low.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted that Nicole's effects would continue to be felt through rough surf. NHC said "Dangerous surf and riptide conditions are occurring in Bermuda, as well as along the east coast of the US from the Carolinas northward into Atlantic Canada. These swells will spread south of the Carolinas to the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles and the Leeward Islands. The coasts of Europe and northwestern Africa will be affected in a few days' time."
Nicole is forecast to head north-northeast to the east of Greenland, before being absorbed by another cyclone.
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Credit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a>

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NASA sees Tropical Storm Nicole go extra-tropical

Tropical Storm Nicole was becoming extra-tropical yesterday when the NASA-NOAA...

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing it with probiotics and prebiotics, aiming to create a treat that satisfies cravings while supporting gut health. 



The challenge lies in maintaining chocolate's beloved texture and flavor while adding health benefits.



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Probiotics - beneficial microbes that balance gut bacteria and aid digestion - are typically fragile and can be destroyed by stomach acid or processing. 



Prebiotics act as food for these microbes, helping them thrive. Together, they form "synbiotics," a powerful health combination.



Researchers Smriti Gaur and Shubhi Singh from India's Jaypee Institute of Information Technology took an innovative approach, using natural prebiotics like corn and honey instead of complex processing methods. 



They created five chocolate varieties: a control and four synbiotic versions containing different combinations of prebiotics, probiotics (Lactobacillus strains), and flavor enhancers (cinnamon or orange).



Laboratory simulations of human digestion showed the probiotics remained viable for over five hours, suggesting they could survive long enough to benefit gut health.



Taste tests were positive, with researchers particularly enjoying the orange-flavored variety, describing it as having "vibrant citrus notes" complementing the "rich cocoa" with a "luxurious" texture.



This research represents just the beginning. With further refinement of strains, textures, and flavors, chocolate could evolve beyond mere indulgence to become a functional food that nourishes while it delights.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsfoodscitech.4c00741" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ACS Food Science &amp; Technology</a>.

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Designing crops that can beat the heat

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 



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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

[sendtonews key="qARzJPSabQ-2270617-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes how Earth is unique in our solar system for its ability to sustain liquid water on its surface. But now, the water cycle is shifting as the climate warms, and scientists must find ways to predict how these changes will affect water availability.



Overall, 96 percent of Earth's water is saltwater, and nearly all of freshwater is found in ice and groundwater. These sources of water are linked as it passes through solid, liquid and gas phases.



In a warmer climate, the water cycle will be transformed. It will be easier for water to evaporate and form clouds, and storms will become more frequent and intense. Some regions will get too much water, while others will be left without enough water. In addition, soil moisture will be lost - which threatens food security.



Scientists are using satellite data from over the last 40 years to track changes that are happening in the water cycle. This will ultimately help us prepare for extreme events and better manage our water resources, according to ESA.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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Saturn,-,High,Resolution,3d,Images,Presents,Planets,Of,The

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a> features images of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The photographs capture the start of the mysterious "spoke season" on Saturn - when unexplained features appear on its rings. 



According to NASA, both the cause of the spokes and their seasonal variability have yet to be fully explained by planetary scientists.



"Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, though because of Saturn's much larger orbit, each season lasts approximately seven Earth years. Equinox occurs when the rings are tilted edge-on to the Sun," explains NASA.



"The spokes disappear when it is near summer or winter solstice on Saturn. (When the Sun appears to reach either its highest or lowest latitude in the northern or southern hemisphere of a planet.) As the autumnal equinox of Saturn's northern hemisphere on May 6, 2025, draws near, the spokes are expected to become increasingly prominent and observable."



Experts believe that the spokes may be a product of the planet's variable magnetic field. When magnetic fields interact with solar wind, an electrically charged environment is created. This phenomenon is visible on Earth as the northern lights.&nbsp;



"Scientists think that the smallest, dust-sized icy ring particles can become charged as well, which temporarily levitates those particles above the rest of the larger icy particles and boulders in the rings," says NASA.



The spokes were first observed in the early 1980s by NASA's Voyager mission. Depending on the angle of the rings, the spokes can appear dark or light.



"Thanks to Hubble's OPAL program, which is building an archive of data on the outer solar system planets, we will have longer dedicated time to study Saturn’s spokes this season than ever before," said NASA senior planetary scientist Amy Simon, head of the Hubble Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program.



"Despite years of excellent observations by the Cassini mission, the precise beginning and duration of the spoke season is still unpredictable, rather like predicting the first storm during hurricane season."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

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Closeup,Of,Fresh,Green,The,Napier,Bush,Grass,As,Animal

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/">NTU Singapore</a> reveals that some plants can remove toxic heavy metals from soil.&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed samples of various tropical plant species to test for levels of heavy metals and metalloids. The study showed that there are existing plants with high levels of these contaminants, which means that these species are great candidates for drawing pollutants out of the soil.&nbsp;



Among the plants examined in the study, 12 species had accumulated several types of heavy metals and metalloids. These plants are widely available, including species that are native to Singapore.



“In a small nation like Singapore, land may be repurposed to support new development plans, so it is important that we have a green and sustainable way to remediate land that is contaminated," said Professor Lam Yeng Ming.



"We set out to uncover how to better make use of tropical plants to do phytoremediation and through advanced characterization techniques, we showed how some of these tropical plant species can be an environmentally friendly and literally a 'green' way to remove contaminants in soil."&nbsp;



"Phytoremediation also has benefits of cost effectiveness, simplicity of management, aesthetic advantages, and long-term applicability and sustainability. The strategy prevents erosion and metal leaching by stabilizing or accumulating heavy metals, so that helps reduce the risk of contaminant spread.”



Video Credit: NTU Singapore



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes why herbicides are not as effective in killing weeds anymore. In the 20th century, chemical companies developed thousands of herbicides. The most commonly used herbicide was glyphosate, which was introduced in 1974.



Over the past few decades, dozens of species of weeds have evolved resistance to glyphosate. Depending on the site of action, the part of the plant that an herbicide interacts with, weeds may even be resistant to herbicides that have not been developed yet.&nbsp;



With increasing resistance to glyphosate and other herbicides, weeds are - once again - becoming a major concern for farmers.&nbsp;



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/">NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> (JPL) describes a dust storm on Mars that was nearly twice the size of the United States. As the storm covered the southern hemisphere of the planet, some of NASA’s explorers had to delay their normal activities.



NASA’s Insight lander put itself in a "safe mode" for 11 days to conserve battery power because solar power was disrupted by the dust. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter postponed flights until conditions improved.



"A fleet of NASA orbiters monitor Martian dust storms like this one and serve as lifelines to Earth by relaying data from the rovers and lander on the ground back to the team. This includes the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, and Odyssey," reports JPL.



"Dust storms like this recent one start close to the ground and are spread by wind as they rise – warming the cold Martian atmosphere."



The images in the video were captured by NASA’s Curiosity as the dust rolled in. A fleet of orbiters monitored the dust storm from above, relaying data from Mars’ explorers back to scientists on Earth.



Video &amp; Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="http://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. This strait provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.



Qeshm is separated from the Iranian coast by the Clarence Strait, also known as Khuran.&nbsp;The Hara Forest Protected Area is a network of shallow waterways and forest located between the island and the mainland. This protected region is home to sea turtles, snakes, and more than 150 species of migrating birds.



Qeshm is famous for its wide range of&nbsp;ecotourist&nbsp;attractions, such as the&nbsp;Hara marine forests. According to environmentalists, about 1.5 percent of the world birds and 25 percent of Iran's native <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/female-hummingbirds-avoid-sexual-harassment-by-looking-like-males/">birds</a> annually migrate to the forests, which are the first national geo park in Iran.



Tourists are also drawn to the island to see an age-old Portuguese&nbsp;fort, historic mosques, the&nbsp;Seyyed Mozaffar&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bibi Maryam&nbsp;shrines, and the "Valley of Stars."



The average temperature on the island is 81 degress and the region is often hot and humid. From June to August, the island is described as being oppressively hot. The ideal time to visit is during the winter season. 



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique.&nbsp;



"Inhambane Bay is a deep inlet into which the small Mutamba River flows," says ESA. "On one side of the bay lies the historical city of Inhambane, capital of the Inhambane Province, while the sister city of Maxixe, the economic capital of Inhambane, sits across from it. The province is the second largest grower of cashews, after Nampula, and it also produces coconut and citrus fruits."



The beaches of Barra and Tofo are popular with tourists. There are also coral reefs along the long coastline of Inhambane, making it an ideal destination for scuba diving and snorkeling.



"Mozambique’s extensive coastline heightens the country’s vulnerability to tropical cyclones that develop in the Indian Ocean as well as storm surge flooding," says ESA.



"More than half of the population lives in low lying coastal areas, putting communities at risk. Inhambane Bay was dangerously close to where Cyclone Idai made landfall in 2019 causing widespread destruction to the country."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency </a>&nbsp;features the Kangerlussuaq Glacier, one of the largest tidewater outlet glaciers in Greenland. The glacier is located on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet.



As human-induced climate change continues to drive up temperatures, global ice loss is accelerating at an alarming rate. ESA reports that, over the past decade alone, 3.5 trillion tons of ice have melted from the Greenland ice sheet. This is enough to cover the UK with meltwater 15 meters deep.



Based on satellite imagery, researchers determined that Kangerlussuaq entered a new phase of rapid retreat and acceleration in 2017. In their study, published in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2019.00123/full">Frontiers in Earth Science</a>,&nbsp; the experts report that the glacier's ice front is now at its most retreated position since the early 20th century.



"Given Kangerlussuaq’s previous impacts on both the magnitude and pattern of ice sheet wide mass loss, we predict that its new phase of retreat, acceleration and thinning will markedly enhance the south-east region’s contribution to increasing discharge from the ice sheet," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;&nbsp;



"More broadly, accurate forecasting of the ice sheet’s contribution to sea level rise will require a deeper understanding of, and responses to, these non-linear ice dynamic processes."



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Kangerlussuaq Glacier on the Greenland ice sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the complex relationship between ocean and climate. ESA's Climate Change Initiative will help us understand how oceans influence the climate and how climate change is impacting the oceans.&nbsp;



"Earth’s oceans are huge heat stores, soaking up 93% of the excess heat from human activity over the past 70 years. Ocean currents redistribute heat around the planet, from the Equator to the poles. Where this ocean heat goes influences weather patterns and regional climate," explains ESA.



"As well as absorbing heat, oceans are a natural carbon sink, absorbing a quarter of carbon dioxide emissions from human activity. This has led to the acidification of ocean water, threating marine life."



The amount of heat and carbon dioxide soaked up by the ocean depends on specific variables, including phytoplankton, temperatures, waves, salinity, and ice cover. Satellites can be used to measure these variables from space.



"From their unique vantage point, satellites provide key information for understanding the complexities of our planet and monitoring environmental issues," says ESA.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Ocean heat influences regional climate

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the importance of monitoring the shape of the sea surface, which is constantly changing. These observations have many applications, such as ship routing, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-modem-ocean-is-a-tough-place-for-whales-to-survive/">ocean</a> current forecasting, and debris tracking.



"A project supported by the Discovery element of ESA’s Basic Activities recently investigated a new technique to measure sea surface topography very precisely," reports ESA.



"The technique involves looking at satellite navigation (GNSS) signals that have been reflected off of the sea surface at very low angles. At these so-called grazing angles, waves and surface roughness have very little impact on the reflection process; the sea surface acts as a very smooth mirror."



Estel Cardellach is the principal investigator at the Institute for Space Studies of Catalonia, who first submitted the idea for the project.



“In a mirror-like reflection the phase of the signal can be tracked – it is continuous," said Cardellach. "Different surface heights result in different phase measurements. It gives a very precise measurement of the surface altitude at a few centimetres’ precision.”



The researchers developed a GNSS receiver and set up an experiment in the Balaeric Islands to collect signals from the receiver that were reflected off the sea surface. Ultimately, these signals will provide improved measurements of the shape of the sea surface.



Image/ Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Monitoring the dynamic shape of the sea surface

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